Oh, I know. But mind tricks are not working at mondays. No mind trick can beat mondays, as it has a way to come and sneakily bite your... erm, parts, if you try to fool "Monday Curse".
It's actually worse. Optimist will never have positive surprises. While positive reenforcing has it's effects, failing after that will depress you more. Do your best and expect the worst. That way even average results will make you happy. I've had good and bad days in my life time. Still, I would not change a thing in my past if I could. If I would, I would not be the same person, as different experiences refine us. There can be only one... erm, sorry. If you have had a bad day, there is something good in it, too. Think harder and you find it. There lies the happiness from that experience. If I remember correctly, old chinese curse goes something like "May the rest of your days be interesting"... or something like that. It's clear where that comes from, but I actually like to have "interesting" days. A Bad day every now and then makes the rest of them all the better. Not always immediately, of course... but eventually.
Really? I've been told I'm negative person. A real pessimist. After telling me that, the same people are asking how can I be so #&"(!}$:n happy. Some people never understand that and I've had tough time to hide my amusement when some "positive" people are baffled, unhappy and even get angry when I'm not unhappy, too! It's like they think they own happiness, because they are positive people.
I have to disagree. The negativeness one sees in other individuals needs to be perceived by the one. The one reflects the own negative aspects at the other individual. You can 'use' them to practise, lol. When you are happy from your inner Self, unhappiness has no place. You can notice that. 2 different people are confronted with the same person / event. The one who is in a pleasant mood perceives the SAME situation more pleasant than the other who is in a bad mood / condition. So it must be the bad mood that creates bad things. It is a quite normal reaction, everybody struggles with it in life, but one needs to know that it's up to the one perceiving it as 'bad'. There is no good / bad 'outside' it's always in one's mind and the mind denies responsibility and wants to have the bad things far away...'outside in the world' or even 'better' to find at other individuals. No, that happiness of what I am talking is NOT dependent on any object. It has no reason, it simply is and the mind distracts you when thinking about.....it is actually your Self. Problems and relative happiness need always somebody who thinks about them and hence both are dependent on the mind and the relative aspect that is perceived. There is no real good and no real bad per se. It is relative to the one who thinks about. And this fact makes you to change it. The perfect happiness is permanently there and buried with stories of the mind. To live presently with your full awareness unveils it....probably firstly for a split second only. One needs to cultivate it. We can only really live at present. But when thinking of the past and thinking of the future we miss our state where we actually can live at all. Do things with awareness and keep your mind on the things you are doing presently. Watch your inner thoughts which appears as your inner voice how it tries to ruminate anything that is not presently. It is useless since one can only act in the present. Don't think about the past don't think about the future. Do what you are doing, with awareness. Eat when you eat, walk when you walk, party when you party. It is a mind exercise to a better life....it helps, really. Sorrows need to be thought to exist, 'I am-ness' is ever...'its' strength is that it cannot be manipulated / changed...it IS... you can count on it.
I am glad I found one. Some words @all....some things that might be misinterpreted. When there is a moment where this all is aware, it doesn't mean you have 'got' it. It's nothing that can be gotten at all. It is less or more aware, that is all. But it is ever here..... So don't think there is a point where one has 'reached' eternal bliss, it IS and has not to be reached. There are moments where there is sadness and no good feeling. It is not a condition where one laughs all the time and is happy....you find such persons rather in a nuthouse lol... To strengthen awareness weakens the effectiveness of the thoughts (mind). When trapped by the mind game 'sadness' or unhappiness and awareness is missing both take (again) effect....later when aware the game resolves and you always come to one conclusion: It is me (ego) who tries to turn mySelf off. . There is no real reason to do so!!! 'I' have always the possibility to stop that, it is an addiction to my habits. The mind says: Let's play the game unhappiness and because 'I' am familiar with it I join the game. And I lose to get its game character and it becomes serious, means my LIFE.....the awareness which is needed to read its character is missing..... Once a good friend said to me when I was angry and upset, I was in a bad mood: Why don't you simply stop with that? It makes you feel bad. I replied: Haha, do you think I do that for fun and have another choice???? He said: Obviously yes! Just stop it, there is no real reason to continue with that. I thought: What a dork, lol….but far later I got what he’s meant. One might think now...it is impossible to stop, or it is hard to stop. BUT these are thoughts (again). They are made by the mind to defend its existence!!! There is a huge effort needed to break the habits of the mind. But one can try it at minor things in life. Next time when something minor happens that makes you unhappy in a way: Try to analyze its cause..you will to have to go through a chain of cause and effects.....and finally end at a point where is no cause. So the entire chain is based on nothing!!! So there is no real reason for it. The mind 'suggests' to you always a real cause, but the mind is a crook. The mind makes you say:" The people are not nice to me, my life goes wrong, I have no outlook, I have no real friends, the politicians hose me!!" The mechanism is: The mind invents thoughts=reasons which are responsible for a small ego. A small ego has the right to become pitiful. If there is nobody that confirms my thoughts, or if 'I' don't notice them, then the ego becomes even smaller and more pitiful. I am a poor guy and the world is cruel to me. And I am right! I have the right to be unhappy, because the world is cruel to me!!! Got the mechanism? It is actually very miserable... Ask yourself: Why? Anytime why? Like a kid that wants to learn and asks its parents always why. And then try to get an real answer for it.... You might firstly end at a point where you get: Yes, there is no real reason to be unhappy, but I am unhappy. I cannot change that now….. No problem, you have done the first step…as I have said the construct of the mind is really protected and will not dissolve that fast. To read that mechanism you need only one thing: awareness!!! And already when it starts to build….when being aware from the beginning, even if the construct should be built again, this time the construct is weaker already, its stability is less. It's in a way such like....you have offended somebody and later you came to the insight that you had been unfair. You have misjudged the situation. Some are able to apologize at once, some have problems with it and some do ever think they are right anytime. The latter people always defend their construct anytime, it is very strong, but wrong. Also it is a misjudgement to think that there is a real reason to be unhappy. To be unhappy because something went wrong. When you have made the effort to be aware and to practise awareness, means not to simply accept anything what is familiar, then you will be able to recognize that you just have been fooled again by the mind, by habits. And there is just another thing: Why should one be here and live in unhappiness? Does one really want that??? Isn’t the time here too precious to waste it with periods of unhappiness? Who am I that I need to be unhappy? Do I really want to be like that? NO!!! And why am I anyway???? Isn’t that paradox??? It happens that I get upset...then I get that there is no real reason for it, I get that I had been caught in the act, better my mind had been caught. Then I start to laugh obviously without any reason.......when there are friends around watching that they say: Yen, you are crazy! And I say yes I must have been otherwise I wouldn't become upset..... They say: No! It's why you are laughing.......there is no reason. And I answer: To me there is one. I returned to my Self. To that what I am. I met some new and old friends last weekend. One played a chapter of an audio book. I didn’t recognize the author’s name. After a few minutes of hearing it I felt happiness. I didn’t know that he’s written bestsellers. I only knew after a few minutes, he is right and he is wise and he is fascinating because he is talking of that what we are and not what we think we are. I listened to the CD audio 1 hour....... And then later…one moment the name sounds familiar…. it has been mentioned here already….where? here at MDL…..by SOCRATE_MMXII I don’t want to spam here, lol. But it 'made' me happy to have heard one saying what I think, too. I am still carrying 'this' happiness with me, here writing this post. "When you create a problem, you create pain. All it takes is a simple choice, a simple decision: No matter what happens, I will create no more pain for myself. I will create no more problems." ~ Eckhart Tolle. I am not good in this writing…..but if somebody is interested in that matter I suggest to google Eckhart Tolle. I didn’t really know him before. He’s the ability to write in a modern way about ourSelf. He uses easy words. I myself struggled with old masters writings for years, lol…but that had been my way.
Would you like to see all your near and dear and friends and foes die one by one , leaving you behind just like a mute spectator?
vjott thats refreshing to hear you are obviously happy and content which I think is wonderful in these times of chaos happening all around us, I would not like to live forever because I know there will be something around the corner to change that thought for anyone.
Just imagine yourself sitting in the burnt out molten mess that is the Earth right after the Sun becomes a red giant., what exactly do you do then ?
That would be sad but I have a mortal fear of death so between being sad and being dead, I would choose the former.
Death is beautiful sir and very necessary or we would be in perpetual war with Hitler and all the other nut jobs from history.
Happiness and contentment are both a state of mind. For instance, I could be living my entire life in squalid poverty but still be happy. A rich man falling into squalid poverty will never be happy. Therefore, as I said before, it depends on your outlook in life. You can choose to be obsessive over transient things or you can choose to be happy because of the mere fact that you are alive. Regardless of some impending doom that you seem to be alluding to in your comment, I would still be happy. There is always "something around the corner" in life, that does not mean that I should leap off a cliff or live in fear. In my country, murder rates are high, the government is corrupt and don't even care to hide it anymore, sexual promiscuity is high, STI infection rates are high, gangs target innocent people and murder them in gruesome ways and entire families are gunned down in their sleep. Regardless, the fact that I am alive is the most important thing and as long as I am alive, I will be happy.
"death" does not exist. The "fear of death" is a property of the mind - hence the ego, not of the SELF. You're still asleep( )...watch Matrix [1999] to realize what I mean.
What I tried to say that imagine the boredom when you have seen and done everything. Imagine the boredom of generations passing you by and you're there just to watch people besides you get born , grow old and die. As Mark Twain well put it the fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time. Life is like a flower blooming today and withering tomorrow.Life itself would seem trivial and so would death. The magnitude of that boredom will be bigger than anyone can ever imagine.There will be no end to the immortal then , except insanity.
Vjot wrote; But happiness is not an object which you can retain with you. It is something which comes and goes. One moment you have it and the next moment it is gone. It is something that dissolve in time like sugar dissolves in water. Same applies to unhappiness too. I have seen people remain happy in disease, pain, ignorance and what not. Even the mad are often happy. But do you think of choosing that kind of happiness for yourself?
vjott pray to god that one day when your time has come that you fall asleep and never wake up again,there is nothing more beautiful than that,and besides there is no need for having fear of death,it´s gonna get us all. Few days ago i read a book that explains everything about god,money,happiness,illness... When you read that book than you really start to realize that every word in it has a true point and that we all experienced it,whether we know it or if we did the things unconsciously. Happiness comes from positive thinking,more positive thinking leads to more positive things,happiness,money... vjott said he´s scared of death,that thinking only leads to more fear and so on. We have to focus on things that we want and not on stuff that we don´t want Everyone has a own definition of happiness and what makes him happy,so just focus on that what makes you happy and soon you´ll see you will be more happier and if you happier your focusing on that and will get more happiness... Example: If i don´t have money and live under a bridge,than don´t focus your thoughts on not having money and living under the bridge,concentrate your whole thoughts on the opposite,that you have millions,that you live in a house of 5 million dollars and you´ll see that with this positive thinking you´ll attract good things to your life. This is just short what i wanted to write,because there is much more that i would like to say but it would take 5 hours to write it down.
Well sid depends on how you look at things,in my case i don´t need anyone in my life and i don´t have those kind of emotions to cry when someone dies or to be sad at that moment. Doesn´t have to mean that eternal life would be boring,every few years something new is invented and you see new stuff and so on...
The thread grows again. I had not much time to reply due to moderating the w8 section. @vjott: Welcome to the MDL forums. IMO to live forever has 2 definitions: 1: To live endless in time. 2: To live eternal without time (timeless). 1: Is not possible, since objects are related to time and time is related to change. But most people are trying it anyway. The reason is because they think to be the body and the body is an object. There are measures to extent the lifespan of the body in time. But the fact that the body has to go one day is inevitable. Objects will change in time. Many people can't live with that fact and hence they try to obliterate the signs of age and time. (cosmetic surgery, anti-aging stuff, pseudo medicine....) only because they don't know who they really are. All what has a start has an end. The condition to be born is the condition to have to die. To deny aging is like to deny to have to die and to deny to have to die is like to deny to be born. People are getting older and older (body idea). The major reasons are NOT the advances and progresses that are made in medicine, the reasons are better hygiene and nutrition, around 80%. 2: Your wish assumes that you think you don't live forever. So either you are right, or that what you think you are is wrong. (I-idea). The only way to get an progress in this is to figure if your idea of what you are might be flawed. All spiritual people and even the religions have this matter, to help to find the flaws concerning Self-identification. Some impulses @all: Lets say you were born in 1990 (doesn't matter when, it's just an example). So you assume before the year 1990 you have not existed. But who says that? Let's say it is you that says that. But can you really remember a moment where you have not existed? Even if you could there must be someone have existed who determines your non existence. You see that paradox? Let's say it is your mum or your dad. They say yes you were not here on earth before the year 1990. But what if your parents are also wrong with their Self-identification? They think to be their bodies and because you (your body) was not here on earth before the year 1990 they say you have not existed before. So the core matter is the idea we are our body and our mind. To solve the matter is to figure if this can be true. The wise say we are not. They say that what one really is is eternal. Your real subject that gets wrong as soon as one tries to objectify it. (tries to put it in words). Your body constantly changes, your mind also. You go to the hairdresser as one person and leave your cut hairs there when you go. So that what are your hairs you've left was previously you. You eat and drink. Your body rebuilds constantly new cells from the food you have eaten. You eat and there are excretions. After some years your body is completely another one. Anyway your idea to be that body has not changed, why? Or lets say the doctors need to amputate your left arm. That what you have been previously is now 'your' left arm. So that what you really are cannot reside in your left arm. Aren't these already some hints that the body idea must be flawed? Where are 'you' located? In your body / mind? It's not important what I think and it's not important what I write here. It is important what you think about. This post is meant to be an approach to take a closer look at our idea what we think we are. And to stay with the body / mind idea will cause that we have to die, because we were born. (That what we think we are was born and has to go.) It's just a fact. Bitter and easy and to escape from this misery is to find out who we really are. This has to do everyone by oneself...and cannot be taught literally.
hm.. you must excuse me, Yen, but i just can`t help wondering what your fly and your spider would have to say about that.. even a fly with the potential to live forever will cease to physicaly exist if it does not do its pythagoras sums right. it will get eaten.. even a spider wih the potential to live forever will cease to physically exist if it does not do its pythagoras sums right; it will die form hunger.. to be able to do something does not guarantee its implementation. there are the choices we make to consider, they decide the consequences of our actions. perhaps the fly did it on purpose..